Venice

Day 10 - Wednesday, June 20 - Venice.  

Start the day in style by private boat to meet our local guide.  Highlights of our walking tour are St. Mark's Square and the Byzantine Basilica, lavish Doges' Palace and the Bridge of Sighs.  Also watch skilled glass blowers fashion their delicate objects in an age-old traditional manner.  Afterwards, enjoy an afternoon boat trip to the Island of Burano where we will enjoy free time to explore, shop for the famous lace work or just relax over an espresso.  Then back to Venice for dinner at our hotel.  Overnight Venice

Today started off hot and ended the same way. We began in the morning with a boat trip to St. Mark's Square. The breeze on the boat felt great and the scenery along the way was very picturesque. We met our guide Diana near Doge's Palace where we began our tour. The stories about the Palace were very interesting as was the walk across the Bridge of Sighs. We followed the same path as the prisoners who used the bridge to make there way to court, freedom or execution. We saw the dungeons and it was quite interesting that the windows were scratched with ancient graffiti. Afterwards we went to the Morano glass factory and watched a demonstration of glass blowing. Some of us made purchases, myself included. We left the air conditioned shop for what seemed like too long of a walk back to our boat. Once aboard, the breeze from the water was refreshing. We arrived at the Island of Burano. This was a very quaint place with not nearly as many other tourists as Venice. The buildings were all brightly colored with many flowered window boxes. The town was also built on canals like Venice. They are famous for their hand made laces and many of the shops had women working on pieces in the store. There was a bell tower in the town with a problem a little worse than the Tower of Pisa. They are currently working on reconstruction. After returning to our hotel, some of us attended a most interesting opera. It was performed in an old church and was excellent.